


A bed and a penny

by Nara_stories



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: M/M, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 23:20:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16073480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nara_stories/pseuds/Nara_stories
Summary: During the book The Scottish Prisoner (Lord John Grey #3) by Diana Gabaldon there is a line:"They shared a room, never a bed."What if they did?





	A bed and a penny

The weather wasn’t kind to them as they were riding towards Helwater. It was only the end of autumn, but the wind already carried the breath of winter, and it was almost constantly raining. Every evening they arrived to the next inn dead-tired, completely soaked, and frozen to the bone. They shared a room, but if there was only one bed, Jamie tossed a coin to decide which one of them would sleep on the ground.

He should have given the bed to John at all times, after all the man was not only a Lord, but he was his captor as well, but he didn’t dare upset the fragile peace with drawing attention to this fact. 

As he tried to make himself comfortable in the lumpy bed, which the penny gave to him this time he made the bitter observation that this careful, but friendly atmosphere was entirely because of John’s brother. Lord Melton – no, the high-handed British bastard called himself the Duke of Pardloe again, after they managed to prove that their father wasn’t a suicidal traitor after all as the public opinion though – was in the habit of very efficiently putting people where he wanted them, regardless of the feelings of said people. 

A few weeks ago he didn’t think he will ever be willing to look John in the eye again, except if they dragged him by force, which... well, it was exactly what happened. The wee pervert wouldn’t have dared to show his face either after he summoned the shadow of Jack Randall without knowing it, upon which Jamie almost managed to kill him with a well directed punch.

But Hal didn’t take no for an answer, and absolutely did not care about their boiling feelings.

Under such pressure they had no other choice, but to cooperate, and Jamie had to accept, that unfortunately he did like John, and that most of the time he managed to act like a gentleman about his unnatural urges.

But still, he once made the man his friend, and he couldn’t help but notice the awkwardness which they acted around each other all the time with. Jamie was not an idiot, and he knew exactly why it was.

With John there was always a before and an after.

Jamie secretly missed those nights, when continuing his custom with the previous governor of the prison he made friends with John during a modest dinner and a game of chess.

But there was always a point where John turned out to be more honest than it was necessary, and Jamie was aware that the previous one probably wasn’t the last occasion either when the man let his self-control slip, and gave word to his attraction regardless of the disastrous consequences.

Two or three days and they will get back to Helwater. And then what? They don’t see each other for a quarter of a year and then continue where they left off, with philosophical musings and verbal chess games? Or John decides to stay away again – out of shame? Or just to keep away the temptation?

Jamie turned on his side, drew the blanket tighter around him and tried to decide if his thoughts or the teeth-chattering cold was the reason why he couldn’t sleep. He wanted to say the latter, but he didn’t like lying to himself.

It bothered him that once they reach their destination he will have no saying in the matter. John could come and go as he liked, but he was after all still a prisoner.

Not as if Pardloe couldn’t have managed his pardon in return for his help, but that was again another matter altogether.

Since he was in the mood for honesty, he had to admit that he was unfair to John. Yes, he was catholic enough to regard it as a sin, but he could never condemn if two men reached for each other in the filth and desperation left by war, in the cold of the night, hungry for a simple touch. He saw it enough in the prison cells of Ardsmuir, and elsewhere too. It wasn’t something a good old confession or an appropriate Gaelic prayer couldn’t absolve. And he was not ignorant enough to judge a man’s character on this, even if he regularly preferred his own gender.

If the shadow of Jack Randall did not stand in the corner, reminding him how he not only raped his body, but his soul as well.

He clenched his teeth and exhaled loudly through his nose. The next moment he was listening for any indication that he woke up the other man.  
But John was breathing evenly by the foot of the bed. Maybe too evenly. How could anyone fall asleep in such a terrible cold?

If it was anyone else, he would have proposed a long time ago to share their body heat. It was a natural thing to anyone who grew up in the rigid beauty of the Scottish Highlands. Especially for soldiers. And they were both soldiers, even if from the opposite sides.

Jamie turned to his other side, tried to stop the shivering of his body with the sheer force of his will and decided that he will fall asleep. A moment later his eyes opened again. He stared in the dark.

You are a coward, James Fraser, he cursed himself.

He spoke before he could change his mind again.  
“Hey, John, are ye sleeping?”  
There was a moment of unnatural silence, which answered his question perfectly. John must have realized this.  
“No. It’s bloody cold in here.”

Jamie decided it was best to get it over quickly and to look this fear in the eye as well.  
“Come here. Or else we’ll both freeze to death until the morning.”  
He moved to one side in the bed.

He could feel the sheer astonishment caused by his words. But he did not speak again and at the end John stood up and hesitantly stopped beside the bed. Straw rustled as Jamie clapped the empty space beside him. He didn’t trust his voice anymore.

He couldn’t see John’s face in the dark, but the man must have decided that a relatively comfortable and warm bed was worth it, because he lay down beside him. Awkwardly shuffling they pulled both blankets over them, and then they suddenly stilled and lay next to each other, carefully making sure that there was at least an inch of space between their bodies everywhere. Jamie’s heart beat so loudly in his chest, that he couldn’t hear anything else. Maybe another rapid heartbeat, but it could have been only his imagination.

 _Ifrinn._ He swore silently, and then moved like a hunter, rolling the surprised man, so that his chest was plastered to John’s back, and with one arm he neatly tucked the other into his embrace. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the sky to fall down.  
John put a shy hand on his arm, and he realized that he was squeezing the poor man so aggressively that he probably couldn’t breathe. With tremendous effort he relaxed his muscles. John remained tense, like he was expecting some kind of cruel joke, but when nothing happened he relaxed as well, his body melting instinctively into the curves of Jamie’s.

Jamie exhaled slowly, and he admitted at least to himself that it felt nice. Their bodies warmed each other up beneath the blankets, his frozen muscles slowly started to release. His palm was resting on John’s chest so that he could clearly feel his heart beating just as fast as his own. Weirdly enough it made him feel calmer. He bent close and inhaled. John smelled like a winter’s night, cool, a bit like smoke, after the long days of travel he could smell his male sweat, but there was a bit left from that cedary cologne as well that his valet combed into his hair before leaving.  
He carefully dragged the tip of his nose along the vulnerable skin of John’s neck, which caused the man to shiver involuntarily like he couldn’t decide to pull away or to move closer. His strong buttocks were lying exactly in his lap, and the movement caused warmth to bloom in his belly.

His heart was beating in his throat and he was aware that at least half of the swirling mass of his emotions was fear, but it didn’t really matter anymore. John never made a secret out of the fact how much he wanted him, and Jamie didn’t want his demons to make him react in a way again that he later regretted.

He bent close again and touched his lips to the previously caressed skin. John inhaled sharply and then made a tiny, helpless sound as Jamie gently run his teeth across his skin. Jamie wasn’t disheartened by the fact that John still tried to lay so motionless as if he was made out of granite. His neck became deliciously hot from his attention and it tasted salty from fresh sweat when Jamie touched the tip of his tongue to it. He placed slow, deliberate kisses on his neck, becoming bolder, until John lost all self-control and was panting and shivering in his arms.

“What... what are you doing?” he asked in a hoarse voice. He pulled away and turned on his back so that he could look him in the eye. The bed was so narrow that he was still completely lying in his embrace. The moonlight coming through the window lit his face. Jamie felt naked from the look in his eyes.

“I’m trying to figure out whether I still bolt like a spooked horse, or lash out like a wounded animal from your gentle touch” he said more honestly than he planned to.

Understanding flickered in John’s eyes, and Jamie wondered when he betrayed himself. Maybe he always wanted John to understand what has been done to him, and one unguarded glance told him the whole story, because he watched closely enough to notice.

“And what do you think?”  
Jamie shook his head, but didn’t look away.  
“Not anymore.”

John looked surprised. He turned to face him, then slowly lifted a hand and touched his face, tentatively, like he was still expecting to be slapped.  
“Since when do you trust me?”  
Jamie smiled.  
“I dinna ken. It must have happened sneakily without me noticing it.”

John’s lips twitched. Jamie felt a sudden, strong urge to kiss him. He didn’t fight it. John moaned into his mouth, his fingers fisted into his hair and he kissed back without reserve. His lips were soft, but they undeniably belonged to a man, especially since none of them shaved in at least two days. Jamie was surprised to find out how much it aroused him. The thought was followed by the usual mixture of shame, hatred, fear and disgust but then John made another honest, longing little sound and these feelings melted away.

He pulled the man closer, and John laced their thighs together in a practiced way, perfectly fitting their bodies together. It was Jamies turn to moan loudly as his cock got the friction it desperately needed, and then again, as he realised in the next moment that it was caused by John’s equally hard member.  
Lust run crackling through his blood, like wildfire, and it destroyed every logical thought left.

John started to loosen their clothes and Jamie clumsily came to his help, with no strategy, only with the single goal to get rid of the bothering layers. John’s fingers were icy cold, but his skin was hot under the clothes and Jamie rubbed himself to it instinctively. Then he stopped, because he realized he has no idea what to do face-to-face with another man, when it wasn’t about one of them brutally using the other.  
But before he could continue this thought, John shamelessly spat in his palm and took hold of both of their cocks, efficiently emptying his head.  
“Oh!” he gasped, surprised. “That’s verra nice.”

John laughed, breathless. Jamie put his hand around John’s and trusted into his fist with straining muscles. John’s thighs were trapping his, so that he didn’t have much room to move. But there was no need for it. They quickly found the perfect rhythm that unstoppably sent them towards completion. It didn’t take long. John came with a muffled, sweet little sound, for Jamie it was all it took to feel the telltale wetness, and he was following him into the shivering orgasm.

They lay for a couple of minutes, limbs tangled together, waiting for their breath to slow down. The hot smell of their bodies mixed together underneath the blankets, making them forget about the previous cold. When his heart wasn’t trying to jump out of his chest anymore, Jamie straightened his clothes and pulled the blankets closer around them. John’s teeth flashed brightly in the moonlight as he smiled, and this time he snuggled willingly into his arms.

The next evening Jamie insecurely toyed with the coin. John understood the silent question, took his hand, and pulled him towards the bed.

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my native language. Any corrections are welcome.
> 
> I don't usually translate my fanfictions, but when there is a ship, which I adore and I feel like there are just not enough stories with them... then I do :D
> 
> Please let me know if you've enjoyed it. I have two more recent Outlander stories with various amounts of John/Jamie(/and Claire) action, so if there is an interest I might translate those as well :)


End file.
